ASTRO CITY 4. Click on the image for a larger view.

Ain't it pretty?

Here's what I like about Stephen King's Hard Case Crime books: They're Stephen King books, so they're well-written and enjoyable, and they make Hard Case Crime a ton of money, which is good and helpful and positive and makes good stuff happen.

Here's what I don't like about Stephen King's Hard Case Crime books: Good as they are, they're not hard-boiled crime, or the sort of thing Gold Medal would have published in the 50s. So the covers and package design are cool-but-wrong, like having the Peter Gunn theme as the overture for a Thornton Wilder play.

I'm glad they exist, and I'm glad they help keep Hard Case Crime around. But I kinda want a new Richard Bachman book when I crack open a cover like that. BLAZE, that would have been a great Hard Case Crime book. But with THE COLORADO KID and JOYLAND, I have to keep reminding myself that it's not the kind of book it's packaged as. It's thoughtful and reflective, not lurid and driving.

And I like what they are. I just don't think the wrapping fits so well. Not that that stops me buying and devouring 'em...

My favorite part about Wednesdays. Getting feedback on stories.

Here are a few early reviews on ASTRO CITY 1:

"...absolutely worth the wait." —Greg McElhatton, CBR

"A great read and a wonderful introduction..." —My Geeky Geeky Ways

"A great return for an iconic series." —Aaron Long, Comicosity

Nice to return to that kind of reception!

Happy Astro City Day, everyone!

Not only is the new ASTRO CITY 1, from Vertigo, out in all fine comics stores and on Comixology today, but Comixology also has the first six issues of the series available in digital form, as well—the first issue is free, and the others are a mere $1.99!

It's right here, just like I was saying!

That means that if you've never read the series before (or even if you have!), you can sample it for free, and/or pick up the entire award-winning first volume for around ten bucks.

Ain't we nice?

Here's what's been going on:

As you probably know, I got pretty sick for quite a while, and even after having gall bladder surgery last summer, it's been a long, slow, recovery process. I'm still not back to 100% (or 100% of whatever percent I functioned at, back when things were clicking), but I've recovered enough to get work done more steadily, at least. Not fast, mind you, but faster than the near-standstill I've been at the last few years.

The first evidence of that is that ASTRO CITY returns to publication tomorrow, and I've done enough interviews around the 'net about that that I won't go over the details again (there's a link to one of those interviews in the previous entry), and I couldn't be happier about it. Brent and I have been slowly shambling forward on the book the whole time we've been "gone," but it's great to be back trading e-mails and phone calls with Alex Ross, John G. Roshell and Alex Sinclair as we get issues lettered, colored and cover-arted. Everyone's got new energy and new ideas, so we're working as a familiar, friendly group, and everyone's bringing new stuff to the mix.

[I should take note, here, that Brent's son, Bryce Anderson, has just graduated from high school as we launch the new #1. He was just being born as we started the first series, so that's quite a reminder of the inexorable passage of time, but one to be proud of—and a double reason to celebrate. Congrats to Bryce and his parents!]

Beyond ASTRO CITY: I'm still working on BATMAN: CREATURE OF THE NIGHT with artist John Paul Leon, and while I can't judge the story, I can say that the art's just stunning. Hopefully we'll get going a tad bit faster now that I'm not quite so dysfunctional, and you'll eventually get to see it.

Beyond that, I have other projects in the works, some of which you've heard of and some you haven't, and we'll be launching them as they're ready to go and as my improving health allows. Hope you'll enjoy what's coming.

We will be making a few changes at the blog, here, as we update the software and hopefully make it easier for me to post new entries. Maybe that way I won't just post stuff to Facebook and Twitter and leave in unblogged, like the lazy bum I am.

But hey, speaking of which, J.G. talked me into starting up a Facebook page for ASTRO CITY, and you can find it here: Astro City

Brent, JG, Alex Sinclair and I are all "managers" of the page, and we'll be adding links, previews and other bits of this and that as the spirit moves us and opportunity arises, so you might want to check it out.

And we do intend to get the old AstroCity.com website back up, either as its own site or as part of Busiek.com, and to find a way to resurrect the Herocopia.com project. But give us some time—first priority is getting the books coming out regularly, and providing new stuff for those sites to be about.

Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go proofread the lettercol to ASTRO CITY 2, and then hop in the shower. It's sweaty work, creating new characters like Doctor Sarchophagus, and he's just one of the new characters I outlined today...!

The fine folks at USA TODAY have put up an interview with yours truly, including a 5-page preview of ASTRO CITY#1.

So if you want to get an early look at the Broken Man, American Chibi and some of what's going on in the book, click on over and take a look:

Busiek Takes Fans on Another Trip Through 'Astro City'

You can see the rest tomorrow, at finer comics store evvawhere...!

Out tomorrow. The "regular cover" is the one with Samaritan on it. The "variant cover" is the one with the Ambassador on it. I don't know what difference it makes—they're both Alex Ross paintings, they're both gorgeous, and they both have spiffy design work by John Roshell.

And inside, both have the same story, which kicks off a new era for ASTRO CITY featuring old favorites, new faces, a complete-in-one-issue story and the seeds of lots of cool stuff to come.

I hope you like it!

For those of you attending Wizard World Portland next month, thanks to the generosity of the Wizard World folks, I’ll be signing and giving away this lithograph at the show, while supplies last. Come by and get one!

[click the image to see it larger]

For more show info, go to: Wizard World Portland or, as always, check the Find section.

February 22-24, 2013
Wizard World Portland
Portland, OR
www.wizardworld.com/home-portland.html
Panels/Signings: details to come.

March 1-3, 2013
Emerald City Comicon
Seattle, WA
www.emeraldcitycomicon.com
Panels/Signings: details to come.

March 22-24, 2013
Fabletown & Beyond
Rochester, MN
fablescon.com
Panels/Signings: details to come.

Hope to see you at one of these fine shows!

So, where were we? What, mail to answer? Okay, mail to answer.

First up, from CALVIN:

Hey, Kurt, we met at the Portland show and I bought SUPERSTAR and thought it was great. Any more of this coming out? Thanks and I am looking for more of Superstar.

Not soon, at least. But more Superstar is definitely something I want to get to—if nothing else, I came up with a big sprawling epic story for the character and haven't been able to tell even that one, much less all the others. So someday, I really want to get to that one, at least.

Who's next? Ah, DEAN:

I really hope this isn't the end of Superstar! What can we do to revive his career? He has so much potential, not only to fight evil, but really change to world for the better by inspiring his fans to volunteerism and activism.

Captain Amazing, at one point in the movie, violently rips the Pepsi logo off his costume from among the many others festooning it. Does he wear the pink ribbon of breast cancer, the multi-colored one of autism awareness, the black one in memory of MIAs and POWs? Does he go on talk shows to defend against drinking and driving, teen pregnancy, racism, or illiteracy?

If it's revealed that he can only take the life force of willing givers, that goes a long way to alleviating my former apprehension of his soul vampirism. Superstar is the first hero I know of who has the responsibility to use his power to support itself. Remembering that he uses life force, he has to use it in a way that his fans feel is appropriate or he will lose his fans. With great power comes great responsibility and that is no more true for any superhero than it is for Superstar.

Captain Amazing?

But that big epic story I mentioned above? It's very much about the idea that if he doesn't do what his supporters feel is appropriate, he loses his support—and thus, his power. What happens when his supporters feel he's unworthy? Similarly, what happens if he doesn't want to kowtow to popular prejudices? He's something of a politician-hero, or needs to be, and that's very much a two-edged sword.

Recently I was explaining to my niece that Kinney is a very common Irish last name and Brian is a very common name, so logic dictates there are other Brian Kinneys in the world. I did a Google search on my name. The saddest entry was a Brian Kinney who died at 911 in one of the planes. The coolest entry was a comic book character in your Astro City books. I've read and collected comic books since I was a kid, but sadly that tidbit passed me when it came out. I bought Vol. 2 collection and was tickled pink when I read it. May I ask how you come up with names for different characters? I do remember your work on Marvels, Avengers, and Thunderbolts. What are you currently working on?

I don't have a set formula for creating names; I just try to come up with names that feel appropriate to the character, in whatever connotations they have, as well as ethnicity and culture. "Brian Kinney" just felt right. [On a side note, you may also have run across the Brian Kinney from the QUEER AS FOLK TV series, who I've always suspected was named after the Astro City Brian.]

From TONY:

Have you read CODE OF HONOR, the 4-issue prestige series written by Chuck Dixon that was clearly a sequel to MARVELS?

If so (or if not so), what did you think of it? How does it compare to EYE OF THE CAMERA? Don't both cover the same territory? Are there any coincidences between both books?

Also, what would you think about this idea for a MARVELS Omnibus:

Your two MARVELS series, the original and the sequel, plus CODE OF HONOR, plus the 3 painted "TALES" one-shots from 1994 (one of them written by you), plus the 4 painted TALES OF THE MARVELS from 1995, including "Bizarro Marvels," aka RUINS.

Basically, MARVELS accompanied by all the books that were released in its wake as sequels to some degree or another, in a 1000 page book.

Would you approve of it or would you prefer an Omnibus of just MARVELS and MARVELS: EYE OF THE CAMERA?

Incidentally, I'd like to know your opinion about all those sequels, especially RUINS, but also the other TALES OF THE MARVELS.

Thank you very much in advance.

I never did read CODE OF HONOR, Tony—at the time it came out, I didn't want to be influenced by it when I got around to telling the story I'd initially intended as MARVELS: CRIME & PUNISHMENT, which eventually became, much-altered, ASTRO CITY: THE DARK AGE. And now that I've written THE DARK AGE, I simply haven't gotten around to reading CODE; I don't have copies. As such, I can't really tell you what, if anything, is similar between CODE and EYE OF THE CAMERA.

From DANIEL:

I have a great idea for a DC comics Superman-based graphic novel, where Superman is not the main character but his actions influence the actions of the main characters and their surrounding environments. Please if Mr. Busiek or anyone from his writing staff could respond i would be much obliged.

Sorry, Daniel, but I don't have a writing staff, and I don't buy ideas from other people. And I'm not working on Superman these days, so even if I did, I wouldn't have anywhere to use it.

From JAMES:

Thanks so much for your reply and clarifying that Kang by sheer force of will chose to not become Immortus. I personally love the idea that the Avengers’ biggest villains came from within, such as Ultron. Hence my preference for Kang being a future-version of Tony Stark…

…and my dislike that Kangortus had his origin so strongly tied to the Richards’.

I was also keen on the unsolved mystery leftover from Roger’s Avengers run of Nebula’s identity, and can’t believe no one thought of revealing her as the granddaughter of the Elder of the Universe, Grandmaster, what with their blue-skin and her similar mastery of strategy and tactics.

Or that Phil Sheldon was a sleeper Living Recorder. ;)

Heh. I always thought it was weird that the Collector, who was an Elder of the Universe, had a daughter, Carina, when Elders became Elders by being the last surviving member of their race, or something like that. If they can then just have more kids, it seems to defeat the purpose. But if they can, Nebula could certainly be descended from the Grandmaster. As it is, I think Erik Larsen revealed that she was the daughter (or something) of Zorr, the alien villain Nova first fought.

From MARK:

Hey Kurt, what's your favorite comic book character of all time?

Hmm. Maybe Hawkeye. He's my favorite superhero, at least. But there are so many others—Miz Mam'zelle Hepzibah, from POGO, would be pretty high on the list too, for instance.

From LIBENA:

I apologize to bother you with my e-mail, but I just finished reading one of your comic books (SUPERMAN: SECRET IDENTITY) and I would like to say my big thanks to you for writing it. I tweeted you this morning, saying I was reading the second issue and that I loved it. After finishing all four issues of the book I have to say—it’s one of the best comic books I’ve ever read!

Clark/Superman is my favorite character in comics. And I love the way you wrote Clark in this book. (Okay, I know it wasn't the Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman, but this Clark was so much as him though actually being human—I loved that!) It was amazing to see his inner thoughts, feelings and his POV of his life, his moments of fears and sadness as well as hope, happiness and love and all the process he’s been through since he discovered his powers and the way he’s been dealing with it. I’m a big fan of Clois and I enjoyed Clark and Lois and their family a lot in this book—they all were excellently written. The scene when Lois told Clark she was pregnant (and the way she did it) and the next one on the boat were my favorite scenes. Anyway, they both were absolutely amazing, loving and supporting each other through all the book. And of course I loved the part with Jane and Carol joining Clark, helping him with the rescue of the train and then going with him home to tell Lois and Clark everything about their powers. The way Clark and Lois raised their daughters, the understanding they had for them, the effort to do things with them right—it was all so wonderfully done!

I usually don’t like books with Clark/Superman becoming old and potentially dying. It’s mostly too sad and depressing reading for me. But not this time! Even this part of the book with Clark being close to the end of his life was outstandingly well-written. He was aware he was aging and losing his powers. But it didn’t sound sad or depressing in this book. He (and Lois) still were there for each other, with their lovely family, accepting all those changes in their life, but still looking ahead and making plans for the future—that was perfect!

I’m really glad I found and purchased this book. I enjoyed a lot reading it. Thank you very much for this marvelous Clark/Lois story.

PS - I apologize for my English. It is not my first language.

I'm very glad you liked it, Liběna. And your English is just fine.

From DODJIE:

Just a question regarding the IRON MAN: DEADLY SOLUTIONS HC: How much is Black Widow in it? I'm a Black Widow fan and seeing as she's on the cover, I just don't want to get my hopes too high. I'm getting this title, as well as AVENGERS ASSEMBLE sometime after the holidays.

Well, Dodjie, since you asked me this last December, the answer's doubtless too late to do you any good. You'll have already discovered she only appeared in two of the issues collected—but I hope you liked the rest anyway!

From JEFFERSON:

Hello, I'm a big fan of yours. I love your work, and last week I re-read a very good story, from Gorilla.
I always thought SHOCKROCKETS was some of your best work—I wonder if you still have interest in publishing anything else in this universe. It's so interesting.

I'm sorry for the mistakes, I didn't learn any English and I'm using Google Translate. So if you see any error, the culprits are the developers of google ... hehehehehehehe

I'd like to do more SHOCKROCKETS someday, yes, but I don't know when. And yes, Google Translate can produce very....interesting results. I cleaned up yours somewhat; I hope I kept the sense of it.

From ROBERT:

What happened to the ASTRO CITY: SHINING STARS TPB? I just heard it's been pulled from the schedule.

As fate would have it, it's recently been pulled from the schedule again, so this is a more timely answer, for a change. What they want to do is have the books come out when we're back on the schedule with new material, so the new series supports the books and vice versa, and we get a nice cross-promotional bang. Since it looks like the new series will be ready to schedule fairly soon, everything's being held until then.

From JASON:

This year I was at my friend's shop in Enfield, CT called Matt's Sportscards and Comics. It's a great shop, and I have known Matt for 18 years. I was going through the shelves and found the Astro City section. I was intrigued. Matt said it was a great series. So I bought LIFE IN THE BIG CITY. I was amazed if not baffled. So I went back and bought the entire run. I am reading them slowly but I have to say ASTRO CITY is the best run of comics of all time. The focus on the average guy on the street and superheroes from their perspective is brilliant. It surpasses WATCHMEN as groundbreaking. The series is a masterpiece. I feel like I am visiting Astro City when I read it. I hope an omnibus is in the works. Thank you for letting me visit Astro City, Mr. Busiek.

My pleasure, Jason. Thanks for the very high praise.

From ROBERT:

Your series MARVELS got me back into reading comics. The Silver Age material was gripping.
I was wondering if you have any information about new issues of ASTRO CITY. It is a great series. I miss it.

Thanks for many hours of entertaining reading.

Glad you've enjoyed it, Robert. As noted above, I'm hopeful we'll have news on new ASTRO CITY material soon.

From DARRYL:

Kurt, I missed getting the JLA/AVENGERS crossover a bunch of years back (kept waiting for it as it was delayed often) and then I saw the collection once at a B&N a few years ago. I didn't have the money then but never saw it again. It's on Amazon used for a hundred bucks but can I get it anywhere now cheaper? It didn't seem available very long. Please help. Thanks!! (lifelong Marvel/Busiek/Perez and Avengers fan)

I don't know how much help I can be, Darryl. There was a big fancy $75 hardcover version and then a couple of years later a $20 paperback, which is available used at Amazon for reasonable prices, I think. Hopefully DC and Marvel's contract will let them reprint it again sometime...

From CASEY:

I've never actually written to a comics creator (at least not that I can think of. Maybe when I was REALLY young, but I doubt it.), but I found myself reading an article about the Thunderbolts just a few minutes ago and it made me think of the 90s and your absolute dominance at Marvel Comics. I can't help but be amazed now that I sit and think about how even as a kid who didn't fully "get" comics (as in the depth of a story, meaning, etc. I just knew I liked the characters and wanted to read them as much as I could), I always knew your stories were special. I remember to this day when you relaunched Avengers in 1998 thinking "I don't know who this George Perez is but I keep hearing he's an important artist, and I know this Kurt Busiek guy wrote those Astro City comics my brother reads. I'll give it a shot." And man-oh-man, those Avengers stories are still clear as day. Seriously amazing stuff (I'm sure this isn't news to you).

I also have to point out that I still refer to SUPERMAN: SECRET IDENTITY as my favorite Superman story ever (I think it was the first comic that made me tear up as I read it.). Truly unique and great stuff.

I guess what I'm getting at is that not many writers from my entire "career" of reading comics have stuck with me like you do. I know this just sounds like I'm gushing, but this was more just me remembering how much joy your stories brought me as a kid and that while I haven't reread them in a long while, I kinda don't need to as they are just so memorable to me.

I don't know if you have any plans to ever do any more work at the Big 2, and don't get me wrong, I've loved all the independent stuff you've put out (admittedly, I haven't kept up with ASTRO CITY as much as I want to. But the trades of all the new stuff are on my list of books to get!) but I will say if your name is ever attached to anything from DC or Marvel, I'm there!

Sorry there wasn't much of a point to this. I just got excited thinking about this stuff. Nostalgia does that, I guess!

Keep up the great work!

Thanks, I'll do my best. And ASTRO CITY is published by DC—but I know what you mean.

From RALPH:

Hello. Just wanted to say I enjoyed MARVELS back in the early 90's and wanted to sign up for the newsletter to see if or when you'll be doing any signings. Thanks.

One of these days, I've really got to get organized enough to actually get that newsletter going. John Roshell, who built this site, put that in—I've now been collecting e-mail addresses for years, but no newsletter yet! I yam a bum.

From PAUL:

So Kirby Freeman winds up as the successor to Tiger 20, huh? I see what you did there.

Heh. Yes we did, didn't we?

From MICHAEL:

I'm a huge fan of your work on ASTRO CITY. I've read every Astro City comic you've put out so far and thoroughly enjoyed them (My favorite being "The Nearness of You," honestly some of the best writing I've ever had the privilege of reading.) Perhaps I'm just bad at searching for information, but I can't seem to find anything about any upcoming Astro City stories, or whether there will be any, and was hoping you could clue me in to anything that might be upcoming.

I've been sick forever, alas, and that ground us to a halt for a while. But that seems to be ending, so as I say above, I hope to have more info soon!

From ANDREA:

Hi, Mr. Busiek. I'm expectant for your new work, BATMAN: CREATURE OF THE NIGHT. When will the graphic novel be published?

Not for a while, Andrea. For one thing, it's a 4-issue, 48-page-per-issue series, like SUPERMAN: SECRET IDENTITY was. And for another, it's been slowed down by me being so ill, just as ASTRO CITY has been, and on top of that, the artist John Paul Leon, while he's doing beautiful work, is almost as slow as I am! We're still working on #2, what with one thing and another, so it'll be some time before we're ready to schedule it.

From ERIC:

I deeply respect your work and it would appear that you've been known to dish out facts and critical thinking in several online discussions you've had, as opposed to simply making baseless statements that lack careful research. You seem to be one of the few comic book creators who has a considerable knowledge base about subjects you weren’t around or old enough to witness.

That said, what is your opinion on the controversy surrounding Stan Lee, mainly with him possibly hogging credit for books he did not write or characters he did not create, while demeaning the people he worked with?

I know you may have probably been asked about this subject before; I made sure to check Google to see if you commented on it, but I haven't been able to find anything you may have said.

I'll admit I grew up loving Stan and enjoyed hearing his voice on cartoons and CD-ROMs, but I then noticed that a lot of people didn't think fondly of him. I found out that he had a strained relationship with many of the artists he worked with: Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers, Stan Goldberg, Steve Ditko, and Wally Wood come to mind. I’ve seen forum posters comment not favoring Stan regarding the legal controversy on Kirby v. Marvel, the history of Marvel’s comics, and his relationships with his artists with far more information (legally and historically) and knowledge than I could currently hope to gain.

Examples being the possible evidence that the artists he worked with would only be given a vague plot description, with several blank spots that required more input from the artists (who had to construct a 22 page story). Additionally, there's evidence from TwoMorrows and other comic magazines that the artists/plotters also provided margin notes in penciled pages to tell Stan what was going on in the panels; which, to me, indicated that he only had a vague idea of what would actually be happening in the books.

I've noticed that over the years, Stan seems to consider his artists to merely pencil what he told them to pencil, despite the early comics saying things like "produced by Stan Lee and ______________" and the fact that he often mentioned in the past that he would barely have to give Kirby, Ditko, and Buscema detailed plots.

One of the more jarring examples was when I learned that Jack Kirby wrote a script for a Silver Surfer graphic novel, according to Mark Evanier, that Stan Lee took credit for writing. Additionally he mentioned in an early Marvel comic from the 60’s that Dr. Strange was ‘Steve’s Idea.’

I was just wondering what your take was on the situation, or if you were able to point me to an essay you’ve written on the subject that I wasn’t able to find.

Ultimately, I realize that you may not be interested in discussing your opinion or take on another comic book professional, and I understand if you do not wish to reply to this question. However, considering a track record of being the namesake for “Busiek wins” as well as doing considerable research on subjects that even make some of your opposing sides respect you, I couldn’t resist asking.

(this isn't really much of an inquiry as it is a multi-layered question, I'm sorry if I overstepped any boundaries)

I don't really have the time to do an exhaustive overview of all this, Eric, but to correct you on a couple of things: I don't think Kirby ever wrote a Silver Surfer script that Stan took credit for. Kirby did create the Surfer out of whole cloth without Stan having any input before he turned up on the penciled pages, and Kirby certainly plotted stories featuring the Surfer than Stan scripted and left the details of who plotted the book vague, but I've never heard that Kirby wrote an actual script Stan took credit for. And that bit where Stan said Dr. Strange was Steve Ditko's idea was in a letter in a fanzine, I think.

From JONATHAN:

I have been a HUGE fan of Mr. Busiek's work since I was a kid and was wondering how I might be able to go about having him sign a few of my favorite books he has written. I am not sure if he is attending any Cons soon or if there is a mailing address I could send them to or what.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

And hey, this last one just came in this morning!

See you then!

I had the pleasure, not long ago, of reading an advance copy of PALISADES PARK, by Alan Brennert. The novel will be coming out from St. Martin’s Press next April, and I recommend it highly.

Let me say up front that I’m a big Brennert fan. I have been since I first saw his work in issues of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD from DC Comics, teaming Batman with other DC heroes. Brennert didn’t tell straightforward adventure stories, he told character stories—of teen heroes Hawk & Dove as maturing adults, thinking back on what their lives had been, of the courtship and marriage of the Batman and Catwoman of DC’s Golden Age, of the repercussions of Batman’s efforts to save the young Bruce Wayne of an alternate timeline from the same tragedy that had haunted and shaped Batman’s life. And whatever else Brennert wrote, whether it was TV series like L.A. LAW or novels like KINDRED SPIRITS, a romance between two disembodied spirits discovering on the verge of death that life is perhaps worth living after all, I sought out his work and couldn’t get enough of it. Everything he writes is imaginative and human, creating richly textured worlds full of engaging, believable characters that don’t so much suck the reader in as welcome him in, enveloping him in story for as long as it takes.

And then, a couple of books back, he took what felt like a quantum leap forward, abandoning the fantasy of his previous work for history, in MOLOKA’I, which I can only describe as the most positive, uplifting, heartwarming novel about decades of life in a leper colony that you’ll ever read. As with all of Brennert’s work, it found a great depth of humanity in its characters, but it did so in a world so outwardly horrific and unsettling that the impact of the book was all the richer for it, mixing tragedy, sweetness, endurance, emotion and hope into a powerful and compelling story. Much as I like fantasy, and much as I liked what Brennert had done before, MOLOKA’I showed that historical fiction was what he should be doing, ushering us into worlds and times that we simply could never see or experience in any other way.

I actually lived in Cliffside Park for a few years in the 1980s (and my friends Richard Howell and Carol Kalish lived in neighboring Edgewater for a while), so I knew the area, but I never had any real idea where Palisades Park had been. Turns out I’ve walked through what used to be the park grounds, and there’s no sign of it left, not that I ever saw. But the book brings it all to life again in a warm, engaging and memorable way, weaving in and out of history and giving us a human perspective on its existence. And the characters, of course, are wonderful. It’s romantic, it’s tragic, it’s dramatic, heartbreaking, thrilling…I may never have seen Palisade Park itself, beyond the ads that used to run in comic books in the 1960s, but I feel like I’ve been there now, and seen what it was. And not from the outside, like a customer, but from the inside, through the eyes of the people who made it all happen.

I don’t want to say much about Eddie Stopka and his family, whose lives grow and shape themselves around a French-fry concession stand in the park, because I don’t want to spoil anything. But I’ll say that their lives are messy and complicated and unpredictable—and through all that, all of them strive for and realize dreams. Maybe not the dreams they started out with (though at least one of the Stopkas manages that), but even when they lose dreams, they find new ones. Not simple ones, and they’re not easily attained, but that’s life. The struggle is what makes the journey worth taking.

To digress a bit—years ago, I was asked to write a FINAL FANTASY mini-series for Disney Comics. I outlined a story I wanted to write, based on the game and the supporting materials they gave me, and they liked it a lot, but had one problem: They were working on FINAL FANTASY 2 (yeah, it was that long ago), and now wanted the comic to reflect that game instead of the first one. So they paid me a kill fee for the first outline and sent me the stuff I’d need to work on the second. But I couldn’t use any of the story I’d come up with for the first one, because the characters in the first game, while fantasy adventurers, were the fantasyverse version of ordinary schmoes—a soldier, a bard, a thief, that sort of thing—and in the new one they were princes and generals and royal inventors and such. They were the guys who prosecute the wars, who controlled and won or lost the fate of nations, while the earlier guys were the guys who endured the war, who survived it and their little part of it as well as possible. Having to switch from one to the other made me realize that my sympathy is always with the little guy—that I love TERRY AND THE PIRATES in part because the leads are, in the final analysis, nobodies who can’t affect the sweep of the war and of history (other than in small and fictional ways), they can only endure and survive. We don’t see what they do to history so much as what history does to them. And we care about what they do for themselves, who they become, how they triump—it’s personal, not geopolitical.

That’s what I love about PALISADES PARK, too (and MOLOKA’I, and Brennert’s other historical, HONOLULU). The Stopkas aren’t movers and shakers, they’re not titans of industry or larger-than-life super-soldiers or anything like that. They’re resolutely life-sized, and all the better for it. They don’t bring down the corrupt sheriff or stop the fire or create the park or close it. We read about them because history shapes them, and they react to history. They don’t steer it—aside from by being part of the mass of the population that brings about change—they experience it. And that makes history (and the Stopkas) come alive in a way that we can grasp more readily, on the same level we experience our own lives, full of struggle and compromise and discovery and the little triumphs that make it all worthwhile.

Brennert’s comics (and particularly the Batman/Hawk & Dove issue) were some of the first that made me realize comics could be more than adventure stories, that even the familiar characters right in front of me could break the “rules” and go be extraordinary in different ways, and started me heading toward what became MARVELS and ASTRO CITY—stories, by and large, of characters who experience and endure their own fictional version of history, doing their best to realize their dreams along the way. I’m thrilled that he’s still telling stories about people stumbling along, living life, pursuing dreams, not beating the villains so much as illuminating what it’s like to be human and to strive. I’m glad I get to keep reading them, and glad I got to read this one early.

And now I get to be frustrated that this one’s not even out yet and I already want the next one.

Anyway. Another winner, and highly recommended by me. According to the back of the advance reader’s copy, St. Martin’s is giving it a first printing of 100,000 copies, a major marketing campaign and a national tour, and it’s well worthy of the big push.

Check it out, when it hits. And if you haven’t read any of Brennert’s work before, check out his other books while you’re waiting. You won’t be disappointed.

The difference between GRIMM and ONCE UPON A TIME:

The one that was created by ex-BUFFY personnel is the one about a hero who discovers they're the latest in a long line of monster-killers and has to take on the role relatively unprepared, but with the help of an aged mentor and a quirky helper.



And the one created by ex-LOST personnel is the one where everyone's stuck in a location that's pleasant on the surface, only there's a complex mystery going on they have to unravel and lots of flashbacks to their earlier lives before they got stuck in this place.



As for tone, the one created by the Buffyistas feels like BUFFY and ANGEL but at least so far, thinner, and the one created by the Lostians feels like LOST but at least so far, much thinner.

We're following both, here at Casa Busiek, to see what they develop into. They're both watchable, though I'm used to Jennifer Morrison from HOUSE, so I keep wanting her to have snappier, faster-paced, smarter dialogue. Or at least be quicker on the uptake.

[On the great FABLES question: I can readily believe that GRIMM isn't terribly influenced by FABLES, since there aren't that many similarities and there's been a spate of fairy-tale movies that could certainly have gotten the genre some notice. ONCE UPON A TIME has more similarities, though, and in the pilot, the fairy tale characters are referred to as "fables" once, which is odd because, well, they're not. Hard to believe they didn't pick that (and other things) up from Willingham.]

As I've noted before, I try to avoid e-mails that fall into the category of "Can you answer these questions for my school report." I'm not in school any more, and despite that, I seem to have plenty of my own homework to do.

But every now and then, someone finds a way around me on this. Julio, here, tells me:

Hello my name is Julio. I'm a high school student. We have an assignment on interviewing a comic writer. I chose you because you're very talented and we are reading your comic MARVELS. It's very good. by the way.

They're actually reading MARVELS? For class? Well, okay, I guess since I haven't done this in a year and a half, I can do another one. But I'm answering here on the blog, so anyone else who's interested can read it.

On to the questions:

1. What is the work that you are planning on or that you are working on?

At the moment, what I'm working on is ASTRO CITY, the series I do with Brent Anderson and Alex Ross, and KIRBY: GENESIS, which I'm doing with Jackson Herbert and (again) Alex Ross. On top of those two, I also have a series called BATMAN: CREATURE OF THE NIGHT to write, a novel featuring ARROWSMITH, a character I co-created with Carlos Pacheco, and a new series called THE WITCHLANDS.

2. What was your first work?

My first professional comics work was a 7-page "Tales of the Green Lantern Corps" story that appeared in GREEN LANTERN #162, back in 1982. That same day, POWER MAN & IRON FIST #90, which I also wrote, came out as well, but I didn't actually write that story until about a month after the Green Lantern story, so I count GREEN LANTERN #162 as my first.

3. What was your proudest moment?

In comics? It was probably when the first reviews and reader reactions started coming in for ASTRO CITY #1. Alex Ross and I had won a lot of awards and gotten great reaction for MARVELS, but getting that same kind of response to something that I'd created from scratch (with the help of Brent, Alex and others, but not any pre-existing characters or publisher's universe) was a real thrill, and really made us feel like we'd accomplished something worthwhile.

4. What is the most challenging aspect of working in comics?

For me, it's the deadlines. Comics are usually monthly, so if you're writing a series, you need to write a new issue every month, month after month, for as long as it lasts. If you're writing more than one series, that just means more deadlines. It can be exhausting—writing one good script is a lot of work, but doing it time after time after time requires a lot of stamina.

I used to be able to write a script a week, but the longer I do this, the harder it gets to maintain that kind of speed.

5. What is the most rewarding aspect of working in comics?

It's hard to say which is better: Getting to collaborate with talented artists, letterers, colorists and editors, so you're all working together to make a comics story that's the best it can be—or get to reach a large audience of readers, who want you to tell them a story in the first place. The idea that an audience is out there that wants to read what I write is what keeps me doing it, both because telling stories to people is why I write in the first place, and because it's the fact that those readers buy the comics that allows me to keep writing them.

6. What does it feel on having an amazing gift such as writing?

It doesn't feel like a "gift," it feels like a skill. Something I learned by practicing it and getting better at it over time, just like someone who practices piano, or practices at playing baseball, will get better and better. It can be a lot of work, but it's worth the effort.

7. How was it like working with Ross on MARVELS?

Alex is one of the most thoughtful and dedicated artists I've ever worked with. Doing MARVELS with him was a lot of fun, because we both put a lot of thought into how best to tell the story, and we each had a lot of input into what the other guy did. He had suggestions and ideas on the story, and I had suggestions and ideas on the art. We'd go back and forth, talking over even the smallest details—sometimes we'd be on the phone for hours, talking about stuff that most readers would never notice. But even if a reader doesn't consciously notice it, it made the story better, and helped us make the stuff the readers did notice all the more real and effective.

I still work with Alex, on ASTRO CITY covers, and on the KIRBY: GENESIS series, and it's still a rewarding and enjoyable experience, because of the attention and thought Alex puts into what he does.

8. Do you have new ideas?

Tons of them. I have more ideas than I could use up in a lifetime—and I come up with new ones all the time!

The better you get at writing, the more easily ideas come, I think. It's one of the best parts of the job, coming up with new things, new stories and new ways to tell them.

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Hope that helps!

Here's an e-mail I figured I'd deal with separately, so it doesn't get lost amid the others.

Eric Sellers asks...

Did the forums linked at your website and the Astro City homepage get deleted or moved? I tried accessing them from your website but it said it didn't exist and then the Astro City homepage link wouldn't connect with anything.

Yeah, they don't exist any more.

I'm not 100% sure what happened—it was while I was dealing with some pretty severe fatigue issues, so I wasn't listening as well as I might when it was explained to me. But I think it had something to do with the forums generating exponentially-growing spam attacks or something, meaning it was taking up more and more server time, and eventually it got too much to handle, and the guys at Comicraft didn't have the resources to keep running them.

The forum was never quite what I wanted it to be, in any case. There was always a spam problem, so anyone who wanted to register for the boards had to be manually approved by the webmaster, which I think prevented people from signing up and joining in.

What I'm planning to do is, sometime between now and when we're ready for ASTRO CITY to start coming out again, I'm going to line up another message board for discussions. For now, those "Comment on this in our forum" links are probably still going to hang around, even though they don't lead anywhere, so that when we have a new forum, we can just slot that in and have the links direct there.

In the meantime, if you're looking to respond to something, or want to keep up on whatever I'm babbling about at the moment, the best places to find me are:

• on Twitter, where I'm @KurtBusiek

• on Facebook, at The Official Kurt Busiek Page

Since spouting off on Twitter or Facebook is easier than writing a blog entry, even, I'm a lot more active there than here. I hope to change that, in time, but for now, theyr'e good places to find me and/or keep up on what's new.

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Also, in case anyone's wondering why they signed up for the newsletter and haven't gotten any, the answer is simple:

There isn't any newsletter.

Again, there should be one someday,so when this site was being put together, Design Wizard John Roshell put in a sign-up option, and I've been dutifully saving e-mail addresses for that happy day when I'll have a newsletter to send. For now, though, all that exists of it is that list of e-mail addresses.

So don't let that stop you from signing up for it, but don't be surprised if you don't get anything for a while.

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And that's the story of all the stuff that doesn't exist around here!